New Delhi: Social media platforms have resolved to work on ways to prevent circulation of explicit videos of sexual assault, violence and child pornography, in consultation with a Supreme Court-appointed expert committee.
The commitments include deploying automated tools to disable dissemination of child pornography (CP) and rape and gangrape videos (RGP videos), providing links for reporting such imagery, and preserving the objectionable content to assist law enforcement agencies.
The SC had set up the committee in October 2017 following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO — Prajwala — seeking directions to the central government to institutionalise a mechanism to stop circulation of CP and RGP videos.
The panel held multiple rounds of discussions with content hosting platforms such as WhatsApp, Meta and Google, among others, that got concluded in June this year, following which it submitted a report to the SC.
The panel was chaired by the additional secretary of the ministry of electronics and information technology, and comprised the director general of CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team), joint secretary from the home ministry and group coordinator (cyber laws) of the IT ministry.
The lawyer for Prajwala, Aparna Bhat, representatives of the intermediaries (companies) and advocate N.S. Nappinai, who was appointed as amicus curiae, were also part of the committee.
Following the submission of the panel’s report, an SC bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath heard and disposed of the matter on 1 August, observing that the committee had resolved substantial issues unanimously.
However, there was lack of consensus on some issues, the court noted, adding that these involved a lot of technicalities and said that it could not monitor the matter any longer.
Disposing of Prajwala’s petition, the court said that any aggrieved party was at liberty to approach the government.
In case the issues remained unresolved, the parties could move the court again, the bench stated.
The deliberations between the social media companies and the committee have led to the creation of a portal, operated by the home ministry, where complaints on CP/RGR imagery can be lodged.
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What the report says
According to the report, which ThePrint has reviewed, social media platforms and search engines will provide links for reporting of CP/RGR imagery as a specific category and the same would be “more prominently displayed on their pages”.
Identified imagery would also be preserved to assist law enforcement, according to the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules of 2021.
One of the important points resolved was related to employment of automated tools such as PhotoDNA and hashtag technologies to detect known CP and RGR content in unencrypted user reports.
The committee recorded that WhatsApp has agreed to use these tools and that it shall disable reported accounts disseminating such content.
WhatsApp will also work towards making further improvement in its reporting process, which would enable easier reporting of content in the app while maintaining the integrity of the content and metadata available on phone at the time of reporting, the report noted.
The company has agreed to take immediate action on the last five messages that are sent to WhatsApp by a user through the “report button” recently installed in the app. These messages are received in a “decrypted form”, on which WhatsApp has promised to act upon in case they relate to CP or RGR imagery.
All intermediaries will also enable a mechanism to show a warning stating that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and RGR videos are harmful and illegal. This would be displayed when a search is made on certain keywords that have been prepared by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Both META and Google have already set up processes which use artificial intelligence (AI) to filter CSAM content, according to the report.
During the deliberations, the committee learnt that META has deployed a technology because of which all uploaded content is published only after being filtered by AI, to ensure that CSAM is not published.
Noting that social media platforms remove or de-index an objectionable URL expeditiously, the panel said the companies will continue to improve their processes for review of RGR content.
The committee was informed that the central government has entered into an agreement with the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to get information on CSAM shared by the intermediaries with the latter.
As far as RGR content is concerned, the government of India has equipped the National Crime Records Bureau to maintain a database of hashtags so that directions can accordingly be given to the intermediaries.
The panel has, however, advised the government to avail a technology similar to Project Arachnid crawler technology for identifying India-based CP and RGR content online.
Project Arachnid technology is a victim-centric set of tools to combat the growing proliferation of child sexual abuse material on the internet.
In its report, the committee recognised the technologies developed by represented companies, including PhotoDNA, video hashing and others, to identify imagery. However, it emphasised on the need for greater collaborative work in the subject area among all stakeholders, including developing a more mature hashing technique.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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